Wedding Tips

So you recently got engaged… Congratulations! Wedding planning is so fun, but can be really stressful. I know that wedding season is in full swing, but I thought that I would impart some last minute wedding tips for all you soon-to-be brides.

First things first, don’t stress too much about the day of the wedding. In the end, it does not really matter that the flowers started to wilt early, or that the candy was not placed on the table correctly, or that the best man got hammered before the reception. Ultimately, your wedding is about you and your cute new husband getting married and starting a family; so just make sure that you two are there, along with an officiant, a witness, and your marriage license. The rest is fun, but don’t sweat it too much when something does not go according to plan (because something will not go according to plan).

The Registry

Don’t skimp on the registry! People want to buy things for you, it makes them feel like they are contributing to helping you and your fiancé start your lives together. Putting less on the registry means that people are at a loss for what to send you, and you will probably just end up with random stuff that you never wanted in the first place, and that you won’t be able to return because you don’t know where they came from. Even if you aren’t sure about it, put it on the registry because you can always return it, and get a little dough in the process.

Register for furniture. No one is going to buy it for you, acknowledge that now (although, if they do, that is awesome and they deserve a really nice handwritten ballad in their honor). BUT when you register with a store, they will typically give you a discount after your wedding on anything that was on your registry prior to the day of your wedding. SO if you register for furniture, you can get a nice price cut when you are setting up your home. Mason and I ended up getting 20% off our mattress and desks because we registered with Amazon and put those things on our registry. If you feel like this is tacky or you just aren’t comfortable with the idea of people seeing the furniture that you want, sit down the day/night before your wedding and stick those suckers in your registry; chances are, if someone is bringing a gift to the wedding, they've already purchased it at that point. YOU WILL THANK ME LATER!

your look

Wear whatever the Frick you want girl. This is your day, these are your pictures, and if someone doesn’t like it, tough luck. The only two opinions that matter in deciding what you wear are you and the person who is paying for your dress. If you want to wear a veil, do it; if you want to wear a flower crown, do it; if you want to wear a pantsuit, do it! Just make sure that the person who is paying for it is down with your vision too.

If you are going to wear shape wear undergarments, get the kind with legs attached (something like THIS or THIS). You aren't going to want to worry about making sure your slip is riding up, and this particular form of shape wear definitely will not bunch in the middle. You also don't need to worry about it riding up when you are getting down on the dance floor.

Clean your rings! You want to make sure that your rings are as sparkly as possible for pictures. I have heard that Pine Sol is a cheap and effective way to clean them. Double check that before you try it because I have not done that myself, but someone gave me that tip before Mason and I got married, so I thought I would put it out there.

miscellaneous

If you have a DJ, make a list together of the people who are allowed to suggest songs and give speeches. Your DJ is your best friend on this one. This list will help you avoid unwanted speeches or non-family-friendly songs. I would suggest limiting the list to you, your wedding planner, your groom, and one or two more people.

EAT! Do not go the whole day without eating. Run through a drive through in between the ceremony and the reception. We had a family lunch and served pizza. Mason and I also had designated snack runners (brothers) who made sure that we were eating and hydrated throughout the reception. It was awesome! I would highly recommend designated snack runners

After you’ve gotten married, there is usually a pile of gifts from sweet well wishers. You are going to want to come up with some sort of filing system to organize all the cards and gift receipts. We taped the gift receipts to the back of the gifts, and kept any order forms and cards in a file folder until we had written their corresponding thank you notes. If there are any cards that you want to save, take a picture of them and make a photo album on Chatbooks. It keeps all those cards in one place, and you can reorder the book if you lose the first one.

My last holy-grail wedding tip is REDLASER.com. You can scan most gifts that you want to return, and the website will tell you where it came from. It does not always work, but will for most of your items.

P.S. How cute are Madeline and Brandon? Their first anniversary is next week! We went on a double date to the capital to see the cherry trees a couple weeks ago. We snapped a couple pictures and I was DYING at how beautiful the setting was! BFFs who will pose for you are the bomb 🙌.